[Tubby Isaacs]

It's literally just talking points. What decisions have been outsourced to the OBR? This sounds like she's picked up some tripe off Twitter from fans of Liz Truss.

And what quangos are they creating? The Government's abolishing NHS England and bringing it directly into the Department of Health. That's a pretty major move against a quango, whether it works or not.

[The Weeping Angel]

Interesting piece on Badenoch, noting how her own approval ratings have risen, but the Tories' haven't.

https://samf.substack.com/p/the-badenoc ... irect=true

At the same time, despite growing confidence and some better Parliamentary performances, Badenoch has done nothing to structurally improve the Tory position. There is no policy agenda beyond pledges to undo Labour taxes rises by cutting welfare. Because the Tory leader seems animated almost entirely by hatred of Labour her positions are always about negating something they’re doing, whether on net zero or private school VAT, rather than setting out a positive agenda of her own.

To be fair to her the party has far fewer resources than in the past to fund policy development, and few MPs to do any of the work. Once you’ve filtered out the mad, dim, lazy and those who have already mentally moved on, there are maybe twenty MPs left who are any use. A lot of the think-tank types who would previously have worked closely with the party have switched allegiance to Reform. For instance Karl Williams, who was research director at the venerable Tory think-tank, the Centre for Policy Studies, has just joined Reform’s policy unit (yes they have one).

But, despite these challenges, Badenoch should still be doing better at developing a platform. Too often she takes positions on the basis of existing prejudices, without thinking things through or doing the necessary work. We saw this on Iran, where she quickly decided to back the US/Israeli attacks, only to back off later when it became apparent what a mess they had caused. Her speeches are typically shallow and partisan with little diagnosis of the country’s real problems. She made one earlier in the week on the economy which included this gem:

“If you look under the hood of Andy Burnham’s proposals, you will find at the core, a mistaken belief, a belief that it is government that creates growth. It is not. It is business that creates growth.”